It's creepy even to think this, but we have to wonder if there's some correlation between Japan's declining population and its obsession with robots. Is it possible that the island nation is intentionally preparing to cede a portion of its society to machines?

The country has always shown a borderline-unhealthy fascination with robots, but recent developments seem to be aimed specifically at populating the service industry's work force. We've seen a system to replace surly hotel clerks and robots that can act as hospital receptionists and porters. Now enter Ubiko from UBIX, an all-purpose bot that Akihabara News says is designed "to replace humans for such tasks as welcoming clients, promote products on site."

By the looks of this thing, though, something tells us that spokesmodels won't be out of work anytime soon.